Butter cows and butter ladies

Butter cows and butter ladies

Pamela H. Simpson

Publisher:

University of Minnesota Press

DOI:10.5749/minnesota/9780816676194.003.0003

This chapter provides an overview of the history of butter sculpture, beginning with Caroline Shawk Brooks’s exhibit of the bas-relief portrait of Dreaming Iolanthe at the Women’s Building at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. Brooks also gave butter-sculpture demonstrations in Chicago in 1893 with other women amateurs. Inspired by Brooks and sponsored by regional creameries, these women displayed their butter sculpture in the Dairy Building. The chapter discusses how butter sculpture was a means for combating the rising threat of the artificial butter called oleomargarine. It examines the rivalry between the two industries and the legislative efforts to control food quality. Butter sculpture became a standard feature of state and regional fairs and international dairy meetings.

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